BURSA MALAYSIA: KL Shares Extend Uptrend At Midday

Share prices on Bursa Malaysia extended their uptrend to close the morning session higher on continued bargain hunting activities after recent losses. They said, the market, which has been in the downtrend since Monday saw follow-through buying with interest centred in heavyweights and lower liners.

At 12.30 pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 6.1 points to 1,161.63, after opening 4.0 points higher at 1,159.53 this morning. A dealer expects a rally throughout the day, although the major indices may still trade in tight ranges.

At noon break, the Finance Index went up 54.21 points to 9,410.05 and the Plantation Index rose 57.45 points to 5,817.23 while the Industrial Index rose 0.24 of a point to 2,564.71. The FBMEmas Index advanced 42.51 points to 7,850.36, the FBM Top 100 increased 40.18 points to 7,621.35 and the FTSE Bursa Malaysia ACE Index rose 8.57 points to 4,183.12.

Advancers outnumbered decliners by 342 to 177 while 166 counters were unchanged, 576 untraded and three others suspended.

Turnover stood at 347.572 million shares worth RM422.859 million.

Among the active stocks, Compugates and MSports each rose half a sen to 7.5 sen and 77 sen respectively and KNM Group gained 2.5 sen to 78 sen.

Of the heavyweights, Sime Darby and Maybank each went up two sen to RM8.21 and RM6.42 respectively, Bumiputra-Commerce jumped eight sen to RN10.36 and Tenaga was unchaged at RM8.00.

The FTSE Bursa Malaysia Kuala Lumpur Composite Index (FBM KLCI) futures on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives were firmer at midday on Thursday in line with the uptrend in the equity market, dealers said.

August 2009 and September 2009 each rose 10.0 points to 1,161.0 and 1,159.0 respectively, while December 2009 added 11.5 points to 1,155.0 and March 2010 increased 6.5 points to 1,145.0. The overall volume amounted to 3,161 lots while open interests stood at 20,515 contracts.

On the cash market, the underlying FBM KLCI gained 6.1 points to 1,161.63 at 12.30pm.